Making fluorescent lights LEDs

[okaynagan]

led toplight.jpg

It a is much like a grade school science project; off of Amazon or eBay one may obtain a 5 meters of LED lights on sticky tape, strip the guts out of ones existing fluorescent lights and replace them. We found the results very satisfying.
There are dozens of YouTube videos on this conversion. Being warned from one of them that the sticky tape may fail to stick and is not always reliable we placed globs of rubber silicone at strategic places for insurance.

gutted.rewired.jpg

[Kentuckian]

Interesting mod! Keep us posted on how it works for you! Any idea how many lumens of light output?

[okaynagan]

gutted.jpg

Lumens! Funny you should ask, I wish I'd known to asked to begin with. Apparently the size chips have to do with the amount lumens. 3528's that I started with only had 5 lumens per chip. The second strip we worked with (5050s) had 15 lumens per chip, what a difference! But in either case enough chips were placed to be brighter than the fluorescent light they were replacing.

Another difference are daylight chips as opposed to the warm light chips. Perhaps it's just my opinion that the daylight seem to put out more light. They are working champion!

[Choptop]

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brefmint]

This is a brilliant mod. I've been shopping for an LED replacement for our fluorescent but will go this route instead. Thanks for sharing!

[mountaindent]

led toplight.jpg

It a is much like a grade school science project; off of Amazon or eBay one may obtain a 5 meters of LED lights on sticky tape, strip the guts out of ones existing fluorescent lights and replace them. We found the results very satisfying.
There are dozens of YouTube videos on this conversion. Being warned from one of them that the sticky tape may fail to stick and is not always reliable we placed globs of rubber silicone at strategic places for insurance.

gutted.rewired.jpg

Yes, the fluorescent light brings back primary school flashbacks and just does not provide satisfying light. When I get a lull in all my projects I bet I start focusing on that light now! Nice job.

[usachris]

It a is much like a grade school science project; off of Amazon or eBay one may obtain a 5 meters of LED lights on sticky tape, strip the guts out of ones existing fluorescent lights and replace them. We found the results very satisfying.

What was your total cost/time invested to build?

[okaynagan]

It a is much like a grade school science project; off of Amazon or eBay one may obtain a 5 meters of LED lights on sticky tape, strip the guts out of ones existing fluorescent lights and replace them. We found the results very satisfying.

What was your total cost/time invested to build?

Gee, that is hard to say for 5 meters of the 12v 5050 led runs about $6 to $7 on amazon prime https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_2?fs ... 1516858197; we already had the jumper wires, solder and silicone adhesive on hand. If don't count your labor time it 's a pretty cheap hack. 16 feet reel of leds did one ceiling fixture and 2 task light fixtures.

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[okaynagan]

Well I am at it once more. This time in the b190.
Clearing out all the components of the fluorescent fixtures and gluing down the LED strips. I've been soldering leads together, apparently there clip-on connectors that make this job much easier; they're not near as time-consuming as soldering is. However only two these connectors came with the LED strip.

toplight.jpg

While I was at it a coat of white spray was added to the shroud of the light fixture; that take care of that yellowing plastic. Looks like a new fixture, it sorta is. It is much brighter now too.

ceiling fixture.jpg

painted.jpg

[Ricci]

Hi! this is so helpful. Would you please update the link to the lights. I think the ones you used are no longer available so the link takes me to a suggestion page and now Im confused again!

[okaynagan]

It seems the price of them has gone up since I first posted this. They can still found for under $10 for a 16foot reel. search Amazon or eBay for "12v LED strips 5050 daylight".